Ornamental surface finish



Sept. 29, 1936. E, J, RI ON 2,055,658

ORNAMENTAL SURFACE FINI SH Filed Dec. 8, 1934 INVENTOR E. J. GRISON ATTORNE Y are essentially variations in tint of the general UNITEDSTATES. PATENT OFFICE,

ORNAMENTAL summon Fnnsn Elmer J. Grison, Fanwood; N. 1., assignor toWestern Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporationof New York Application December 8, 1934, Serial No. 756,603

'4 Claims.

This invention relates to ornamental surface finishes and to a method ofmaking them and more particularly to an imitation wood finish to beapplied to surfaces of wood, metal, artificial resins, stone and thelike and to a method of making the same.

The characteristic appearance of the surface of a highly finished pieceof wood in which the natural structure and color variations of the woodare disclosed under a transparent protectivecoating such as shellac orwax, is dependent on three principal coacting factors, namely, thegeneral color of the wood broadly speaking, the grain or fiake-and-porepattern itself, and a third pattern of broad irregular streaks whichcolor of the wood. These streaks are much coarser than the fine elementsof flake and pore which makeup the grain pattern itself, and the streakpattern seems to be independent of the fiake-and-pore grain pattern andto blend through it.

Some methods of making imitation wood surface finishes in the past haveincluded steps or means for imitating the ground tone of the wood to becopied and imprinting or otherwise copying thereon the characteristicpore-and-fiake or grain pattern, and many such finishes have anexcellent appearance. However, the importance and even .the existence ofa streak pattern apart from the grain pattern does not appear to havebeen. hitherto recognized, nor the fact that the deep softness ofappearance of a wooden surface depends in fact largely on the streakpattern. 4 I 7 One object of the present invention is to produce animitation wood finish of improved nat uralness'and softness ofappearance by means of a method which takes into account the existenceof the streak pattern and employs means to reproduce it.

One embodiment of the invention contemplates an imitation wood finishcharacterized by including a special coating applied ina manner torepresent the streak pattern of the wood to be imitated independently ofthe fiake-and-pore or grain pattern, and a method including the step ofapplying a special streak pattern coating.

"Other-objects and features of the invention will appear from thefollowing detailed description of one embodiment thereoftaken inconnection with the accompanying drawing in which the single figure is adiagrammatic perspective view of a ,piece of material having animitation wood finish applied thereto in accordance with the invention,and in which the vertical dimensions are exaggerated for clarity.

In the embodiment of the invention herein disclosed, a piece ID ofmaterial to be given an imitation wood finish on its upper surface II is(CI. 41-26) Y prepared in any suitable fashion according to the naturethereof. If of ,wood, it may be planed smooth, brushed with a steelbrush and a suitable liquid, or sanded, or otherwise smoothed.-

If of metal, stone or otherhomogeneously texon birch the followingmixture has been found 20 to be'satisfactory for the ground coat.

2 lbs. Italian raw sienna ground in oil,

lb. Turkey burnt umber ground in oil,

34 pt. varnish, and 1% pts. turpentine.

' This ground coat ,-is laid on thickly enough or repeatedly tocompletely mask any underlying pattern and/or color, is dried, andsanded as may be requisite. v Over the ground coat is applied a specialstreak pattern coat Hi. This is a substantially transparent'coatingcarrying some pigment not necessarily the same but generally allied intone and color to the ground coat. It may be satisfactorily applied byhand with a brush, or may be sprayed on and subsequentlybrushed toproduce the re -quired streakiness. A suitable mixture touse over theground coat described above for imitating walnut is the following.

\ 12 oz. Vandyke brown ground in japan,

4 oz. ivory drop black ground in japan,

1 pt. rubbing varnish, and;

- .1 qt. turpentine.

This streak pattern coating is finished in the usual way by sanding orrubbing after drying, and is substantially transparent,-its visualeffect being to vary the tonal quality of the ground coat in streaksrunning generally longitudinally of the subsequently'to be applied grainor pore-and-flake pattern. .The visual effect is thought to be due alsoto the fact that the streaks of this coating "naturally yary inthickness so that the reflecting surfaces of this coating are not all inone plane, which adds to the liveliness of the appearance ofthe finishedarticle. Thus the streak coating acts by changing the density of colorof the ground coat and also by giving the flake-andpore coating anirregularly reflecting backing.

A flake-and-pore or grain pattern coat I4 is then applied in anysuitable fashion, one method being by offset printing with a transferroller from a photo-engraved plate copied froma specimen of the wood tobe imitated, or from an actual piece of the wood itself suitablyprepared to'act as a printing plate. Such methods are well known in theart and hence need not be described here in detail. The ink or color tobe used for printing the flake-and-pore or grain pattern in imitatingwalnut in connection with the ground coat and streak patterncoatdescribed above may satisfactorily have the following composition.

1 lb. burnt umber ground in oil, and

;4 oz. japan drier.

One or more protective layers l5 of transparent material of any approvedkind, varnish, shellac, lacquer, wax or the like may be applied over theflake-and-port or grain pattern coat and finished in any desired mannerto give the customary brilliantly or mattly polished surface.

A characterizing feature of the invention is the discovery of theexistence and of the importance to the appearance of a finished woodsurface, of the broadly variegated one color streak pattern which seemsto lie through both the monotone ground color of the wood and theminutely variegated and also frequently several colored grain orflake-and-pore pattern. The flake-and-pore or grain pattern derives itscharacter from actual structural variations in the wood, from diiferenthardnesses in adjacent areas both small and relatively large, and frommaterials such as celluloses, lignins, resins and the like of differentchemical composition and color in similar areas. The streak pattern onthe other hand seems to be independent of the structural elements of thewood and is a variability of the shade or tint of the basic color inareas which bear no apparent relation to the structure or to theflake-and-pore grain pattern.

Adding a definite imitation of the streak pat-.

tern as taught by the present disclosure enhances the naturalness ofappearance of an imitation wood surface markedly.

Although in the above, the streak pattern has been described as beingapplied before the flakeand-pore or grain pattern, equally satisfactoryresults are obtained in many instances by applying these two patterncoatings in the reverse order.

It will be noted that while the fiake-and-pore pattern is in someinstances applied as a direct and substantially true copy ofthecorresponding feature of the particular piece of wood, the appearance ofwhich is to be imitated, the streak pattern is preferably merelyirregularly brushed on, not following any particular or definitepattern, except that its streaks run generally parallel to the alignmentof the pore pattern.

The flake and pore pattern was discussed above as a single thing,although in fact it consists of two combined and related patterns,namely, the pore pattern and the flake pattern, which may in someinstances be applied as separate coatings as by printing from separateplates. It is further to be noted when the port pattern and flakepattern are considered separately, that the elements of the flakepattern run across the direction defined by the alignment of the porepattern elements} a fact which clearly distinguishes the flake patternfrom that which is herein termed the is due apparently to structuraldifierences in the wood, the lighter parts being seemingly of dense?substance than the darker, while the streak pat tern runs indifferentlythrough structurally different areas.

The embodiment of the invention herein disclosed is merely illustrativeand may be widely modified and departed from without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention as pointed out in and limited solelyby the appended claims. In particular, the practise of the method of theinvention is not limited to the particular paints, varnishes, and thelike disclosed herein, but any analogousmaterials having the requisitecharacteristics may be employed therein.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of making an imitation wood finish having a pore patterncomprising aligned markings on a suitably prepared surface whichincludes the steps of applying a ground coat over the surface having thegeneral color of the wood to be imitated, applying a varingly thick aswell as varyingly dark coating of broad substantially parallel streaksover the ground coat to give the varying tone elfect of the streaks ofthe wood to be imitated, and applying a minutely variegated coatingthereover to represent the flake pattern and the pore pattern of thewood to be imitated, the aligned markings of the pore pattern runningsubstantially parallel to the streaks.

2. A method of making an imitation wood finish having, a pore patterncomprising aligned markings on a suitably prepared surface whichincludes the steps of applying an opaque ground coat over the surfacehaving the general color of the wood to be imitated, applying avaryingly thick as well as varying dark substantilly transparent coloredcoating of broad substantially parallel streaks over the ground coat togive the varying tone effect the streaks of the wood to be imitated, andapplying a minutely variegated coating thereover to represent the flakepattern and the pore pattern of the wood to be imitated, the alignedmarkings of the pore pattern running substantially parallel to thestreaks.

3. An article having an imitation wood finish thereon comprising aground coat having the general color of the wood to be imitated, avaryingly thick coating thereover laid on in. broad substantiallyparallel streaks varying in both thickness and darkness to give thevarying tone effects of the streaks of the wood to be imitated, and aminutely variegated coating thereover to represent the flake pattern andthe pore pattern of the wood to be imitated, the aligned markings of thepore pattern running substantially parallel to the streaks.

4. An article having an imitation wood finish thereon comprising anopaque ground coat having the general color of the wood to be imitated,a varyingly thick coating thereover laid on in broad substantiallyparallel streaks varying in both thickness and darkness to give thevarying tone effects of the streaks of the wood to be imitated, and aminutely variegated coating thereover to represent the flake pattern andthe pore pattern of the Wood to be imitated, the aligned markings of thepore pattern running substantially parallel to the streaks.

EIMER J. GRISON.

